Water Purification Unit (NE-ROWPU), (WIP, Feedback Requested)

Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit
General Summation:
A ROWPU unit is a self contained vehicle mounted water purification system. Essentially it pumps water from a source. It is then treated with a beta-alanine polymer intended to initiate coagulation to remove solids from the water. Following this it is subjected to a filtration process and then an ion exchanger. Next it is sent through a last filter process of combined cotton and charcoal. Finally, it is pumped in a reverse osmosis process which results in 90-99% total purification. As part of the storage stage it is treated with chlorine to prevent bacterial buildup.
The tank units can filter between 500 and 7000 liters per day. The standard vehicle mount is the Fox 4x4 Utility Vehicle, but a similar sized vehicle or trailer can be substituted.

The Importance of Clean Water
For soldiers, petroleum workers, aid workers and people in developing nations, clean water for the purposes of medicine, agriculture, drinking water and for personal hygiene purposes is a vital necessity, a matter of life and death potentially. For military personnel in the field, they may have to serve far from any water purification infrastructure. It is therefore vital that they should have the cleanest water available for drinking and bathing purposes.

In the world today, the vast majority of diarrheal disease are attributed to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene, and at least 5 billion die each year as a result of diarrheal disease. The World Health Authority (WHA) estimates that 95 percent of these diarrheal cases are preventable through modifications to the environment, including access to safe water. Reducing deaths from waterborne diseases is a major public health goal in developing countries. Simple techniques for treating water at home, such as chlorination, filters, and solar disinfection, and storing it in safe containers could save a huge number of lives each year. However the most effective and efficient way of reducing disease and parasites in water is through reverse osmosis.

History
The process of osmosis through semipermeable membranes was first observed in 1748 by Jean-Antoine Nollet. It was only observed in labs for nearly two centuries, but in the 1950s and 1960s the process was made commercially viable, and desalinization plants sprung up all over the developed world.

In the Allied States of New Edom, a semi-tropical country, the largest proportion of military casualties continued to be disease until the Fabian Corporation’s R&D department partnered with the Department of Defense developed a portable plant that could be driven on a truck. The initial plant was large enough that a two and a half ton vehicle was required, but a small model, driven on a land rover or humvee sized vehicle is now available.

The Process

1. Reverse osmosis is the process of forcing a solvent from a region of high solute concentration through a semipermeable membrane to a region of low solute concentration by applying a pressure in excess of the osmotic pressure. For example in the case of brackish or high saline water, it would be on one side of a thin polymer membrane (a beta alanine polymer of biodegradable plastic made by Green Oceans Technology) with clean water on the other side. Pressure exerted causes the flow of the solvent towards areas of higher concentration.
2. Ion Exchange: ion exchange devices purchased from the Free Republic of Lamoni’s Department of Agriculture are used as part of the composite device to make the water molecules more resistant to undesirable materials such as algae or cysts.
3. A cotton/charcoal filtration process, such as is used in many water filters (including those of fish tanks!) is also used to soften the water.
4. Chlorination. Chlorination is used to kill the bacterial and protozoan processes that can build up during storage. Careful application of this is used to avoid destroying electrolytes and basic nutrients in the water. Regular testing of the water is done following this stage.

Sems okay.